


Dalewillow

by NothingRiddikulus



Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fluff, Give Renarin An Axehound 2K17, Kaladin is an akward cutie, M/M, kal is a dad wannabe and gets shamed for it, the kholins are the kholins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 08:58:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12385002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NothingRiddikulus/pseuds/NothingRiddikulus
Summary: 'If you excuse me saying so Kaladin', stated Navani, 'you are possibly the most sentimental man I’ve ever met.'Kaladin buys Renarin a gift, and he is teased relentlessly by his family in return.





	Dalewillow

1.

‘What in damnation’, asked Zahel flatly, ‘do you need an axehound for. Surely those bridgemen of yours keep you busy enough.’

‘Well uh. It’s not for me. It’s for…’ Kaladin was tempted just to say the puppy was for one of his men, which was technically true. He took a deep breath and decided he might as well give Zahel the whole truth from the start, since he’d hear it eventually anyway. He braced himself to be teased. ‘It’s for Prince Renarin. We’re courting’

‘Ah and so of course the _logical_ thing was to give him an axehound’. Zahel’s tone was drenched in sarcasm, and his expression was that of a man who had spent years putting up with the nonsensical tendencies of royalty.

2.

‘Oh of course it’s a good idea!’, Navani reassured him. ‘Renarin will be thrilled, I’m sure.’

‘I’m glad you think so. I was worried it was well, a touch over the top?’

‘Hardly’. Navani smiled at him, and Kaladin began to relax. Navani spoke with the knowledge of a scholar and the wisdom of a mother. He felt safe. ‘After all,’, she continued, ‘couples need as much preparation for children as possible. And you may not think an axehound puppy is much like a human baby but one that small you’ll have to bottle feed anyway so it really won’t be that different’. She smiled in such a way that Kaladin knew he was being teased. His stomach turned in on itself.

‘I uh… suppose not’.

‘May I have a closer look?’

‘Of course, Brightness’. Kaladin gently extracted the sleeping axehound from down the front of his coat. It unfurled itself slowly, and blinked up at them with its big eyes. It yawned, and its antennae popped up. Navani gasped, and gently nuzzled the back of the axehound’s head with her freehand.

‘What’s your name then?’, she asked the axehound.

‘She hasn’t got one yet. I thought Ren might want to name her.’

‘I do not’, stated Navani, ‘believe that for a second. If you excuse me saying so, you are possibly the most sentimental man I’ve ever met, and so I simply won’t accept that you managed to carry a baby animal through the entire warcamp against your chest without giving her a name’.

‘…She’s called Dalewillow’. Kaladin blushed.

3.

‘How did you end up with her?’, Adolin wanted to know. ‘It’s bad practice to sell them so young, though that’s the fault of the seller, not you.’

‘She wasn’t wanted. There was a whole crate of puppies next to a stall in the market place and I wasn’t going to take one but uh…’

‘But what?’

‘well, she was trying to escape you see’.

‘So… you thought she was unhappy?’

‘Oh! Storms no, she seemed very _happy_. I think she’s just rebellious. She almost got run over by a cart once or twice, and I pegged her as well, determined. Doesn’t really think before she acts you know? So she made me think of Renarin.’ Kaladin hoped Adolin wouldn’t take that as offence to his brother.

‘Ah, so you met a reckless idiot and thought you had better introduce her to _our_ reckless idiot’. Adolin snorted. ‘Well Ren will love her, he hasn’t had an axehound in years. And he’s _never_ had a nice present from a nice boy. The shock of it will probably kill him’. Adolin laughed again.

4.

‘A present, eh?’, remarked Dalinar. ‘That’s certainly significant.’

‘It is?’

‘Well I think so, anyway. It’s a sign of commitment I’d say. It’s definitely a sign of something.’ For a moment Dalinar looked confused, and a little out of his depth. Then he cleared his throat and became a confident warlord turned politician once again. ‘In any case, I’m pleased to see you treat my son well. I’m glad you and he are getting along well, he deserves to be happy.’

‘He does’. Kaladin gulped and looked at the ground. He hoped Dalinar wouldn’t try and have a heart to heart with him.

‘You really make him happy, do you know that?’. He didn’t give Kaladin a chance to reply. ‘And that’s very important to me, so you had better _keep_ making him happy’. Dalinar attempted to deliver this line gruffly, but it came out more like a plea.

‘I will try’, Kaladin reassured him. ‘I uh, want him to be happy too’. The truth in that statement overwhelmed Kaladin suddenly, and he felt his heart pang. ‘I love him’, he declared, and then immediately felt embarrassed. Dalinar sighed, obviously relieved.

‘Go to him’, Dalinar told him. ‘It seems half the warcamp has met Renarin’s axehound before he has!’

5.

‘Kaladin!’, Renarin yelled, waving at him from his window. He slipped out onto the windowsill, wobbling a little. Kaladin resisted the urge to stick him to the wall with stormlight so he couldn’t hurt himself. ‘Adolin told me about Dalewillow!’, he told Kaladin happily.

‘If you don’t like the name you can change it, I won’t be-‘

‘I love the name!’ Renarin had begun to climb down the wall, and his feet slipped and kicked at the bricks. Eventually he found a foothold, and seemed quite happy with himself. Kaladin reassured himself with the fact that if Renarin did fall, he was unlikely to get hurt. The structure that formed the floor of his chambers was also known to Kaladin as a ceiling, and he had hit his head on it once or twice when reporting to Dalinar. 

After a little grunting, Renarin gave up trying to find somewhere convenient to put his hand, and he jumped backwards off the wall, landing in a strong stance, if not gracefully. ‘I’m getting good at jumping off things I think’, he commented. ‘I blame Zahel. Oh! This is Dale?’

‘That’s her.’

‘And she’s all mine?’

‘Correct.’ Kaladin pressed his lips together and waited for Renarin’s reaction. 

‘I love her’, he breathed. Kaladin relaxed.

‘Here, hold her.’ He pulled Dalewillow out of his coat once again, and handed her to Renarin. Renarin sighed happily as the weight of her shifted from Kal’s arms to his, and smiled deliriously. He began to nuzzle her head with the back of his hand, and she chirped happily, wriggling with joy as he scratched in between the plates on her back. He laughed. ‘ _Oh_ , I love _you_ , Kal.’ 

Before Kaladin could reply, and perhaps purposefully so he could not, Renarin began red faced to speak again: ‘She is uh, incredibly small Kaladin. Overwhelmingly so. Should uh, _should_ she be that small?’

‘she’s a _baby_ ’, Kal laughed. ‘She’ll grow quickly.’

‘Good.’ Renarin got a mischievous smile on his face. ‘Uh, speaking of babies…’

‘…Yes?’

‘Well Navani says she’s practice. A practice baby. She says you’re…’ Renarin’s face screwed up and he struggled not to laugh. ‘She says you’re broody!’

‘Well no see she’s actually... see I had thought...’ Kaladin’s ears turned red.

‘Shhh my darling, you can tell me your name ideas for Dalewillow’s future little sibling _after_ we get used to having her around all right?’ He snorted. ‘We _are_ a little young for children, after all.’


End file.
